Introduction

Notes and ideas for blog posts. Yes, on actual paper, with actual ink. I’m not brave enough to take my laptop on the T.

I don’t know about you, but I had no idea when I saw the list of other names that would be contributing here at Feministe how much I would enjoy their writing. Jill picked out a pretty flippin’ awesome group of people, and I’m honored to be among them.

That’s right – for the next two weeks, you, reader, are part of my captive audience.

Who am I? Let’s get the demographics out of the way: I fall under the default personhood in western culture in every major way except these: sex (female), class (grew up poor), and societal access (multiple disabilities). I live a fairly comfortable life in a smaller urban area south of Pittsburgh, PA, sharing space with three creatures whose combined weight just about adds up to mine: the 120lb husband and the 14-and-9-lb “kids,” named Matt(w), Buddy and Mitsy, respectively.

I’ve been around the blogosphere for several years now, commenting under this name (case varied). I started my blog – one year ago last weekend! – to have a space to externalize and process my own thoughts on any number of issues, including my experience as a low-class kid being raised by a mentally ill single mother, in an agricultural area in central California where Latin@s actually outnumber whites, and struggling to come to terms with my increasingly-unavoidable disability as I grew older. Issues covered include feminism, disability, health care, class and race, and conventional white-male-higher-class “politics.” (Food for thought for this open introduction thread; what makes an issue “mainstream politics” instead of “special interest”? Have you noticed that the latter tends to be in the emotional, supportive, caretaking realm, engaging from the level of people’s actual lives and experiences, as opposed to macro-level manipulation of hypotheticals? What about Maslow’s hierarchy? Making certain experiences “default” even though they are hardly representative? What else?)

All ur blognotes r belongz to Buddy

As a warning, I’ve got several topics in mind to cover during my stay here, but I make no guarantees. I’m only just beginning to recover from a nasty pain flare and my coherence on any given day is impossible to fully predict. That also means my wording won’t always be the most artful. Don’t hesitate to ask for a clarification, or point out any missteps – it’s not like I couldn’t use the improvement :)

I warmly invite any who fancy my writing to subscribe to my blog feed and stop by for a comment once in awhile; I love to hear new voices. More information at my about page. My thanks to the Feministe writers and to the community here for this opportunity.

Similar Posts:

• I’m back! by amandaw June 29, 2009
• Salve! by jamelle September 1, 2008
• “Soy Aimée, la de Zaida.” by Aimee September 8, 2009
• Thanks for having me! by Amelia August 22, 2010
• Introduction by Dr. Confused October 3, 2007